This document summarizes a presentation on wearable technology for sports performance and technique monitoring. It discusses how technology availability and the uptake of smartphones have enabled new monitoring systems. A variety of sensor and component options are reviewed, as well as the need to consider requirements of different stakeholders like athletes, coaches and fans. The presentation emphasizes that successful solutions require understanding minimum viable products and managing systems architecture. It provides an example product called Xelflex that illustrates how different applications require different technological approaches and no single size fits all.

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Commercially Confidential
Does one size fit all?
Ruth Thomson, Martin Brock
Wearable Tech Expo – London – 11th March 2015
Presented in the Performance Sports Track
at the Wearable Tech Expo 2015
http://www.wearabletechnologyshow.net/spo
rt-fitness-track

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 Introduction
 Technology options
 Stakeholder requirements
 Designing a successful solution
 Example: XelfleX
Does one size fit all?

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Who we are
 Over 450 engineers, designers, scientists, and consultants.
 Delivering innovative product development for our clients across many market
sectors including medical, sports & fitness, enterprise, and personal care.
 We work with our clients at all stages from concept generation, through prototyping
to transfer to manufacture & implementation of systems.
 Further details at http://www.cambridgeconsultants.com/

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Sports performance and technique monitoring…
THEN… NOW…

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What has brought about this change
in sports performance & technique
monitoring?
2 of the key factors are…

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Technology availability
 Components are now available at a cost, size and performance
that makes new products/systems possible…
 …new options are emerging all the time.

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Uptake of smartphones reduces the cost of entry for new products/systems…
 The uptake of smartphones means that most
consumers already have part of the system
in their pocket
 Wearable tech systems can effectively ‘piggy
back’ on this existing infrastructure
– Cost benefits
– Data capture is effectively omnipresent

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Let’s consider the
technology building
blocks required to deliver
these systems

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Technology – what are the options?
Wearable device(s)
Wearable
It’s important to remember that there is much more to this than just the wearable
device; you need to consider the whole system

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Wearable device(s)
Wearable
Technology – what are the options?
sensors
UI
processing
comms
processing
processing
UI
service provisioning
service provisioning
sensors
UI
processing
comms

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Wearable device(s)
Wearable
Technology – what are the options?
accelerometer
gyroscope
ECG
optical (PPG)
GPS
EEG
altimeter
pressure
GSR
lactate
camera
GPS
accelerometer
camera
algorithms
processor
power
security
antenna
Bluetooth classic
BLE
WiFi
GSM
NFC
4G
WiFi
algorithms
processor
power
security
LEDs
haptics
display
auditory
display
haptics
auditory
magnetometer
…clearly there are lots of different options and many new ones emerging all the time…

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…if you included all these technology components in a single solution you might end
up looking like this…

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Does one size fit all?!
Clearly…NO!
…or worse…like this!…

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Does one size fit all?
 Introduction
 Technology options
 Stakeholder requirements
 Designing a successful solution
 Example: XelfleX

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Clearly one size doesn’t fit all,
and to develop a successful
solution it’s important to consider
the requirements of the
stakeholders who will use and
interact with your product/system

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Angle of movement
What are the requirements? What is actually needed?
Technique
Heart rate
Waterproof
Weight
Think about the different requirements for different sports, and what
the athletes want to know…

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What are the requirements? What is actually needed?
Accuracy
Cost
Ease of use
Set up time
Data security
Think about the different requirements for athletes at different levels
in sport…from mass market consumers to elite athletes…

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What are the requirements? What is actually needed?
coach
sports
scientist
media
fans
Think about the different requirements for the different stakeholders
involved in a single sport.…it’s not just all about the athlete, you
also need to consider…

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What are the requirements? What is actually needed?
coach
sports
scientist
media
fans
…also think about the importance of the context of WHEN & HOW the information
will be consumed e.g. what the coach wants to know on the side of the pitch
during a game is different to the information he wants when reviewing the team
performance post-match, or when catching up 1:1 with a player to review
performance over an extended time

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Does one size fit all?
 Introduction
 Technology options
 Stakeholder requirements
 Designing a successful solution
 Example: XelfleX

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We’ve already talked about the
importance of understanding the
requirements of the stakeholders
When designing a successful
solution it is also important to
consider…

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What’s your minimum viable product?
I’m not saying you shouldn’t be ambitious, but you should think through what
would be the MVP that would be successful for you. This will allow you to
focus on delivering rather than being distracted by ‘nice to have’ features
which could increase the scope and delay your development.
Designing a successful solution

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….also, remember that this is a SYSTEM!
You need to consider the system
architecture right from the beginning…

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Changes to one element of the system often affect others.
Understanding this and managing the system architecture are critical.
Designing a successful solution: it’s a system

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Designing a successful solution: it’s a system
Demanding applications can result in conflicting design requirements.

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Does one size fit all?
 Introduction
 Technology options
 Stakeholder requirements
 Designing a successful solution
 Example: XelfleX
I will use an example of an emerging
wearable technology (Xelflex) to illustrate the
point that one size does not fit all…

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XelfleX – making garments inherently smart
 A novel type of ‘smart’ textile that
makes garments inherently smart.
 As a plastic optical fibre based
technology it’s cheap, comfortable,
robust, safe and washable.

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The basic principle behind XelfleX is very simple. Optical fibres scatter back a
very well defined amount of light continuously along their lengths
XelfleX
Distance along fibre
Reflected
power

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Bending the fibre tightly results in increased scattering and reflection and so
also less scattering beyond the bend
XelfleX
Distance along fibre
Reflected
power

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By integrating the fibre into a close-fitting garment, motion of a joint
can change the amount of bending at a defined point in the fibre
Xelflex

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INS sensors XelfleX
What is it
measuring?
Absolute limb
orientation / motion
Relative joint
motion
Accuracy? Degree ~10 degree
Importance of fit? High High
Scalable? No Yes
Cost for 1 sensor? Low Medium
Cost for multiple
sensors?
High medium
Integration in
textile?
No Yes
Time to market Ready > 1year of
development

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Does one size fit all?
 Introduction
 Technology options
 Stakeholder requirements
 Designing a successful solution
 Example: XelfleX
Thank you!

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More about the presenters…
Ruth Thomson leads the Consumer business at Cambridge
Consultants. She has more than 12 years’ experience of
working with consumer brands, using technology to deliver
innovative consumer experiences across a range of
products and services. In the wearables space she is
working across sports and fitness technology, wellness and
personal care applications bringing Cambridge Consultants'
significant skills and experience in the development of novel
connected systems to these opportunities for innovation.
More info at https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruththomson
Contact Ruth at ruth.thomson@cambridgeconsultants.com

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More about the presenters…
Martin Brock is the Head of Technology in one of the 3
divisions at Cambridge Consultants. He is the technical
lead on multiple complex sensor developments, and he is
the inventor of the Xelflex technology. Martin is an optical
physicist by background.
More info at https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinbrock

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